After the Lewis & Clark
by Moriarty's Dynamic
Summary: Strange things aboard the hospital station that receives the survivors of the Lewis & Clark.
1. Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1- A Message from the Home Office

Lt. Lynn Jaeger pulled herself, hand-over-hand, along the grips provided in the hospital station's corridor. Despite her four years of zero g training, three years on the station as XO for Captain Stanley and a natural talent for mid-air acrobatics in micro-g, the Lieutenant couldn't propel herself fast enough to quell the erratic beating of her heart.

Clipped to the Lieutenant's belt, and knocking against the walls of the station each time she reached for the next hand-hold, her E-Slate continued to chime. No matter what she did- clicking "accept" on the message, rebooting the software, even trying to power down- the E-Slate refused to stop its panicked chiming. _Message Alpha- Highest Priority_ dominated her screen, and shut down all other functions on the E-Slate.

Usual communication traffic on the lieutenant's E-Slate ranged from priority _Yankee_ up to priority _Victor_. Medical emergencies were usually coded from _Tango_, for sprained ankles, fungal infections, pustulating STDs and the like, all the way up to _Quebec_, for fatal construction accidents or battlefield casualties. The worst message Lt. Jaeger had ever received on her E-Slate, priority _Juliette- Urgent_, had occurred when the hydrogen carrier _Dromedary _had exploded off the port gantry of Manufactory 9. That incident had resulted in 94 deaths and 114 severe burns- enough weight of bodies and ships docked to the hospital station to burn out the station's attitude thrusters and nearly throw her off orbit careening into Mars.

And now, priority _Alpha- Highest Priority_. Lt. Jaeger couldn't even begin to contemplate such a message could mean. Underneath the flashing _Message Alpha _screen, a touch field indicating the need for authorization from Captain Stanley or Chief Medical Officer Em before accessing the actual message.

When Lt. Jaeger reached the Captain's ready room, she skipped the customary shipboard knock and simply kicked the foot-plate to activate the door. The door wasn't locked, and buzzed open. Lt. Jaeger torpedoed under the rising door before it could lock in place and into the edge of the conference table that dominated the ready room.

Chief Medical Officer Em had beaten her to the Captain's ready room, and was presently braced against a crash couch and leaning forward over the Captain, close enough that her spit covered the Captain's hair as she screamed at him. The Captain, facing away from the door and looking out through his porthole, sucked on a bulb of hot lemon tea.

"… fucking scanners can track self-replicating, infectious shit down to the quark level, for god's sake. Nobody from the Lewis & Clark's got anything, accept that Justin boy's bezonked out of his head and the lady…"

Both looked up when Jaeger flew into the office. Em pulled back from the captain. White gobs of dried spittle crusted at the corners of her mouth. Her face was a red as the martian soil 243 miles beneath the hospital station. The Captain did not spin around to face the Lieutenant.

"You have no doubt heard," droned the Captain.

"Heard what, Captain? What what," said Jaeger, shaking her E-Slate at them. "The _Alpha's _locked. I need your permission to open it."

Em pushed off her crash couch and drifted over to Jaeger. She snatched the E-Slate out of Jaeger's hands and entered the override access code into the touch field.

"Think that's a good idea," the Captain asked. He took another mouthful of tea and continued his vigil out of the porthole. Phobos rising in the east, over the Chryse Planitia. The thousands of lights of Dardanelle City, the moon's only city and the solar system's largest shipyard, winked on and off at them.

"What's good about any of this shit," responded Dr. Em. "Got to rip the mustache tape off the girl at some point. And why don't you plug a tampon in it, Stanley."

"Did war break out on Venus, sirs? I have family there," said Jaeger.

"Worse," said the Captain. He took another sip from his tea bulb. Dr. Em thrust the E-Slate back into Jaeger's flat chest with enough force to set her adrift. Em took her place back on the crash couch next to the Captain's. She pulled an old-fashioned flask out of her coat pocket, unscrewed the cap and took a hit. She grimaced, wiped her mouth with her sleeve and slipped the flask back into her coat.

Jaeger gently rebounded off the far wall of the ready room as she stared at the screen. She mouthed the words as she slowly read the message, over and over and over.

After the fourth read through, she looked back at Stanley and Em. Both now stared out the porthole. Phobos crested the Chryse Planitia, and raced between Mars and the station.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2- Action Item Order, Emergency Measure Vault

Lynn Jaeger read the following message on her E-Slate...

**PRIORITY: ****_Alpha- Highest Priority_**

**FROM: Board of Directors, Home Office, Planetary Health Tech Systems, Inc.**

**TO: Station Captain Kim Stanton Stanley (****_Act. 1_****), Hospital Station ****_Felicity_**  
**Executive Officer Lynn Bathsheba Jaeger (****_Act._****_2_****), Hospital Station ****_Felicity  
_****Chief Security Officer Cartwright NMA Spostack (****_Act. 3_****), Hospital Station ****_Felicity, _****Termagant Class Ship ****_Rondo_**

**Chief Medical Officer Susan Emily Em (****_M.D. 1_****), Hospital Station ****_Felicity  
_****Chief Surgical Officer, Myong Isabel Lo (****_M.D. 2_****), Hospital Station ****_Felicity  
_****Chief Internist/Emergency Medical Officer, Padraig Slade Vasquez (****_M.D. 3_****), Hospital Station ****_Felicity_****, Termagant Class Ship ****_Rondo  
_****All epidemiology/virology/immunology/toxicology staff**

**RE: Memorandum on the Treatment of Exogenic Life Forms**

The directorate of the Government General, in consultation with Planetary Health Tech Systems, Inc. ("PHTS") and United Nations Space Command ("Geneva"), after review of all known data related to the disappearance and subsequent destruction of Experimental Ship _Event Horizon _and the mission and subsequent destruction of Ambulance Class Ship _Lewis & Clark_, and possible release of exogenic and possibly communicable lifeforms into the general population of Hospital Station _Felicity_, all neighboring stations, Dardanelle City, Phobos, Gateway City, Deimos, or the greater conurbations presently on Mars, hereby do order and decree as of the time of this message the consistent and full application of the following guidelines from Emergency Measure _Vault_.

I _Treatment of crewmen from Ambulance Class Ship _Lewis & Clark_:_

1. Lt. Starck (36, f)- containment, quarantine lab; disinfection;

2. Lt. Cooper (27, m)- containment, quarantine lab; disinfection;

3. Ensign Justin (22, m)- containment, trauma/recovery unit; disinfection.

In all cases under this clause (I), disinfection should be conducted, with the review and approval of Station Captain, Chief Security Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Surgical Officer, Chief Internist/Emergency Medical Officer and the acting department heads of epidemiology, virology, immunology and toxicology laboratories, at the appropriate level to ensure maintenance of shipboard community standards. All parties listed above should be moved to Deep Cold Storage following disinfection.

II. _Treatment of crewmen from Ambulance Class Ship _Andrea Grazia:

1. Capt. Shinzei (42, m)- containment, crew guest quarters; disinfection;

2. Lt. Cardassian (37, m)- containment, crew guest quarters; disinfection;

3. Lt. Cmdr. Kreutz (40, f)- containment, psychological health services; disinfection;

4. Ensign Stengler- (25, m)- containment, crew guest quarters; disinfection;

5. Rescue Technician Mayer (31, f)- containment, crew guest quarters; disinfection.

In all cases under this Clause (II), disinfection should be conducted, with the review and approval of Station Captain, Chief Security Officer, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Surgical Officer, Chief Internist/Emergency Medical Officer and the acting department heads of epidemiology, virology, immunology and toxicology laboratories, at the appropriate level to ensure maintenance of shipboard community standards. All parties listed above should be moved to Deep Cold Storage following disinfection.

III. _Treatment of bodies from Ambulance Class Ship_ Andrea Grazia:

1. Lt. Schwarzbaum (36, f)- deceased, self-inflicted (cranial/vertebral trauma); deep cold storage;

2. Ensign Smith (23, f)- deceased, self-inflicted wounds (exposure, vacuum); deep cold storage;

3. Rescue Technician Lee (51, m)- deceased, self-inflicted wounds (overdose, pain medication); deep cold storage.

IV. _Treatment of Medical Staff/Station Crew/Administrative Staff/Morgue Technicians from Hospital Station _Felicity _and assigned to the above Clauses (I) through (III)_;

To the extent any members of Medical Staff, Station Crew, Administrative Staff and Morgue Technical Services Staff have come into contact, or probable contact, with any of those listed in Clauses (I) through (III) above, recommended treatment is disinfection.

In all cases under this Clause (IV), disinfection should be conducted, solely with the review and approval of Station Captain, Executive Officer and Chief Security Officer, at the appropriate level to ensure maintenance of shipboard community standards. All affected parties should be moved to Deep Cold Storage following disinfection.

V. _Guidelines for Proper Operation of Hospital Station _Felicity _and Termagant Class Ship _Rondo:

Until further orders received by General Government, Hospital Station _Felicity _should be run in conformity with Hospital Station operation and administration manuals and regular orders (i)(a) through (lxxxii)(p) of Emergency Measure _Vault_; provided, that, regular orders (ii)(k) through (m), (xxx) and (xxxi)(A) shall be waived until further orders received by General Government.

1. Termagant Class Ship _Rondo _shall be locked into berth and rendered inoperable by Station Crew;

2. All visiting ships, including Ambulance Class Ship _Andrea Grazia_, shall be locked into visitor's berth and rendered inoperable by Station Crew;

3. Martial law shall be in effect onboard Hospital Station _Felicity_:

a. Parties resisting disinfection shall be subject to summary executive action by  
orders of Station Captain or Chief of Security;

b. Parties disobeying, or refusing to obey, orders of Station Captain or Chief of Security, in conformity with terms and provisions of Emergency Measure _Vault_, shall be subject to summary executive action by orders of Station Captain or Chief of Security;

c. Food, water and medical rationing shall be subject to direct orders and control by Station Captain or Executive Officer;

d. All communication devices, other than Secure Phones and E-Slates operable by Station Captain, Executive Officer and Chief of Security, shall be rendered inoperable by Station Crew;

4. In no event should furnaces, gas vent systems or airlocks be used to dispose of any items, be they medical in nature or otherwise. In particular, all items presently on board Ambulance Class Ship Andrea Grazia and all personnel moved to Deep Cold Storage must under no circumstances be allowed to leave the outer hull of Hospital Station _Felicity_;

5. In no event should any personnel, for any reason, conduct EVA or any other egress outside of the Hospital Station _Felicity_.

In all other regards, parties to this memorandum shall keep the contents of this memorandum strictly secret. Further orders, and assistance of Mount Sharp Tactical Base and Gateway City, Deimos, shall be forthcoming as soon as possible.

Signed,

&c, &c, &c


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3- Into the Breach We Go

Jaeger tried to catch her breathe.

"Are we contaminated, sirs? Has there been an epidemiological catastrophe?" Jaeger find it hard to keep her voice from rising. The threat of plague in the highly interdependent network of close-quarters ships, stations and colonies, with no clean country to run and hide, no place to avoid run-ins with other people, was as hideous a scenario as a station officer could imagine. Worse than full on war.

"Dismissed, Lieutenant," droned Captain Stanley.

"Are there infected people aboard this station, Captain!?" A ship or station suffering from an outbreak of some virulent illness had to be quarantined, sequestered, sometimes indefinitely, or the whole system risked breakdown and death.

The Captain, still refusing to turn around in his chair, languidly waved her off and took a final sip from his tea bulb. He simply let it drift from his hand to land wherever it would.

"How can you be so casual? Sir," said Jaeger, "you are scaring me. And if you're scaring me, you can damn well be sure," and Jaeger groped for words.

Dr. Em pushed off from her seat and floated over to Jaeger. "Come on babe, this is no good. Captain's had his say."

"There are 14 mothers in the maternity ward alone, dammit! How can you just sit there!?" cried Jaeger.

Dr. Em gently shoved Jaeger towards the door of the Captain's ready room. Jaeger snapped her head towards the doctor. She bunched her hand to strike out at Em's face.

"You too, Doctor," said the Captain. "I require solitude. Chief Spostak already has the necessary authority. Take all orders from him as if," and the Captain languorously waved his hand, "as if from the word of God Himself."

Dr. Em ushered Jaeger out the door into the service corridor. "Let's leave him be," she said. "Captain, please get some rest," she said, in the loud monotone normally reserved for the elderly. "Once you've convalesced, we'll talk some more. Ok?"

"Rest?" asked the Captain. "No rest here, when the blind man has emerged from the inky sea to judge us, to pull us into its infinite, despairing depths." Jaeger braced her foot against a stanchion to keep her from being moved any further. "Having nightmares yet, Lynn?" The Captain chuckled from behind his seat. "You will, when the blind see you too." And with that, the Captain remotely shut the door. Locking bolts clunked into place and sealed the door.

"Lynn, Lynn," said Dr. Em, and gently turned the lieutenant's face towards her again. Jaeger twisted the doctor's arm behind her and shoved her face first against a wall. "We've got to make plans. Please!" gasped the doctor.

Jaeger let go of Dr. Em. Rubbed her hands over the stubble of her shaved head. "I have been," she said. "Having nightmares."

"We all have," said Dr. Em, rubbing her wrist.

"About a blind man. Horrible," said Jaeger. She shivered.

"Just no one's wanted to talk about it," said Dr. Em. "No one wanted to get booted from this station for suffering Event Horizon syndrome or whatever. The _Weir_d, they call it. But psych has been getting bombarded in the mental health clinic." She lightly grabbed Jaeger's sleeve and propelled them down the service corridor with a few well-placed kicks. "We ran out of sleep meds, melatonin, anti-anxiety pills, space fever treatments."

"Everything?"

"Hell, at this point we're down to a few agoraphobia capsules and fucking aspirin," said Dr. Em. "And you know the headshrinkers are clenching up and hoarding that shit."

"So, that set this off?"

"The fucking _Antonio Grazia _set this off. Fucking medically unprecedented. And assclowns that we are, we put in a request for a whole new allotment of all meds." The two turned a corner from E-Wing to One-Wing, on their way to officers' quarters. They passed to computer techs on their way to the E-Wing command bridge. Em lowered her voice. "The computer registers each pill we pop out of the dispenser anyway, so they've probably been on to this longer than we have." Dr. Em stifled a giggle. A passing nurse looked at her oddly as she moved on down to C-Wing.

"Now we're just chickens in the stewpot," said Jaeger.

"Amen, sister," said Dr. Em. They flowed down a travel tube to F-Wing, where the crew bunked. "You speak bureaucratese, right? You know what 'disinfection' means."

"So what do you propose," said Jaeger.

"First of all, lets avoid the riffraff here. Come to my quarters. I've got a an idea. There's one place even the douchebags running this lockdown can't affect. No matter what systems voodoo they do." Dr. Em kicked her foot plate to toggle her door open.

Cartwright Spostak, all 4'10" of him, sat on Dr. Em's sleep couch. He traced the outline of one Dr. Em's paperweight collection with the long nail of a dirty finger. What must have been his two biggest goons, stun batons out by their sides, leaned against opposite walls in the quarters.

"You pick your nose with that, before you touched my shit?" said Dr. Em. Spostak dropped the paperweight on Dr. Em's crash couch.

"Ah, the good doctor," said Spostak, "charming as ever." He smiled, licked his lips. All just a little less friendly than a starving, rabid jungle cat's toothy grin. "Just the ladies I was looking for."


End file.
